Excerpts from Swami Venkatesananda's writings

This is the extremely delicate art of living: to play our part in this world as though it were a reality and yet never to forget the ultimate reality which appears, through mistaken perception, as the world.

We mistake pain for pleasure and persist in it, though it is painful.
We hypnotise ourselves into the conviction that this is pleasure.

There is the test!
When I am the aggressor and you are the oppressed, I can call to my aid sublime philosophy, but when the tables are turned, I must still be able to smile at the marvel of nature.
If you are able to do this, probably you have seen some truth.